


Comfort Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

by the_overlord



Series: Teenage Drama Has Never Felt This Good [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU, Also everyone's ages have been pushed closer together, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, No Werewolves, Pre Relationship, Scott and Derek siblings, because I got writer's block, kind of a not fic, olderbrother!Derek, sterek, will be a series, with eventual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 23:31:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/919320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_overlord/pseuds/the_overlord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek's having a good day, so of course he comes home to find his brother's 16 year old best friend sobbing on the bathroom floor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comfort Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've been having writer's block so I wanted to start a new series. And I've developed a thing for OlderBrother!Derek as of late (there are some amazing ones out there that I don't want to tread on the toes of) so I thought, why not give it a go? So here is part one of what will eventually be a Sterek series. I promise.
> 
> Also, my ages:  
> Derek: 18  
> Stiles & Scott: 16  
> Laura: 20
> 
> Pushing their ages together makes it easier to write.

Walking up the driveway, keys jangling against his fingers as he twirled them aimlessly, Derek couldn’t help but smile.

He’d had a good day, spent it with someone he really liked. He’d actually enjoyed himself in someone else’s presence, had fun and let go without his multitudes of insecurities getting in the way. It was a good feeling, a _new_ feeling. One he’d certainly never felt outside of his family.

The door wasn’t locked when he stuck his key in, but no one answered him when he called out a greeting, tossing his keys into the bowl on the side table and kicking the door shut with his foot. He figured that whoever was in was busy upstairs, or maybe sitting out in the garden, after all the day was ruthlessly humid even for a Californian summer, and he had the sweat stains to prove it. Sniffing experimentally at his shirt he winced as the sour smell hit him full force, sending him veering away from the TV remote, and straight up the stairs towards the bathroom, pulling his shirt over his head as he went, chucking it into his room when he passed by his darkened doorway. It wasn’t until he was nearing the bathroom that he focused enough to pick out the faint sound he’d been absently ignoring. A breathy, sort of panting sound that had him ready to bolt back downstairs, shower be damned, before he’d taken another step forward. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d come home early and interrupted some of Scott’s alone time, or, more recently, Scott and Allison time, though that didn’t make it any less mortifying to catch them at it again. It was like they had no self-control whenever they were around each other. Every moment with them was like staring a time bomb of sexual frustration in the face.

It was an unattractive sniff that stopped him from bolting, however, the long, wavering sigh following it sounding decidedly less sexual and more distraught to Derek’s ears. Quieting his footsteps he followed the sound until he came to a stop before the bathroom, door slightly ajar letting the light filter out. Peering in as unobtrusively as he could manage, Derek wasn’t as surprised as he should have probably been to see not his brother, but his brother’s best friend leaning up against one of the cabinets with his knees pulled tight to his chest.

It wasn’t that Stiles hanging out on floor of their bathroom was common, but the kid was around so much he was practically part of the furniture, though Derek made a point of never phrasing it like that around Stiles because it usually resulted in an atrocious rendition of the Oliver soundtrack completed in the worst cockney accent Derek had ever had the misfortune of hearing. But the point was, he wasn’t all that surprised to find Stiles in the house, in fact the kid had even had his own key made at the same time Scott had been entrusted with his set, however he was slightly put off by the fact that Stiles was crying.

His face was pink, his cheeks visibly damp even from where Derek was standing, and as he watched, the boy let out another breathy exhale and rubbed furiously at his eyes, muttering something below his breath that Derek couldn’t quite catch. He’d seen Stiles cry before, 10 years of knowing someone, even adjacently through your brother, left that as sort of a given, but mostly that had been loud, gurgling sobs that ended as soon as someone put something sweet in his hand or switched on Batman. This was different, this wasn’t crying for attention or, sobbing for the sake of it, theses were private tears, tears of actual pain, tears he physically couldn’t keep in no matter how much he was trying to. The only time he could remember ever seeing Stiles so sad before was at his mother’s funeral, which didn’t exactly bode well for the situation.

Poking his head round Scott’s door to check his brother wasn’t just being a terrible friend, he shuffled back to the bathroom, knocking hesitantly, pausing as he heard the sniffing stop followed by a quiet cough.

‘Er – Y-yeah?’

Derek was actually kind of proud of how little Stiles’ voice wavered.

‘Hey, um, it’s Derek. I just wanted to – I heard from down the hall – I just thought I’d…’ _God_ he sucked at this. He paused, sighing as he rested his hand against the doorknob, but making no move to push the door open. ‘Look, can I come in for a second?’

There was a short, confusing silence, before Stiles deigned to answer, a strange edge to his voice.

‘Yeah, ‘course you can. It’s your house, man.’

Pushing at the handle Derek wandered into the room; taking one look at the ruffled boy before sinking down next to him, studiously ignoring the cupboard handle half digging into his back. Stiles just watched him, large, curious eyes following his progress, fingers fidgeting against the knees still drawn up to his chest. When he made no move to speak Derek did instead, eyes fixed on the sink against the far wall instead of Stiles, even though he could almost feel the boy’s gaze locked on his face.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘With the world? Oh many things. Wars, and poverty and human trafficking-’

‘With _you_ , Stiles.’

‘Oh, right. That. You know, nothing much.’

Derek tilted his head towards Stiles so that the boy could see his eyebrow as it moved up his forehead accusingly.

‘Yeah, because when I’m feeling great I like nothing more than having a good break down on the bathroom floor of my best friend’s house.’

‘I thought Scott would be here.’

‘That’s not the part I’m focusing on here Stiles. Why are you crying?’

Stiles was silent, his face scrunched up and his eyes slipping out of focus as he seemed to lose himself in his thoughts. He was quiet for so long that Derek thought he might not be getting an answer, but just as he was about to give up and offer to get Stiles a bowl of ice cream or something, he spoke, his voice soft and almost reverent.

‘Have you ever told yourself something so often, for so long, and with such conviction that you almost forget it isn’t real?’  
Derek knew a rhetorical question when he heard one so he stayed quiet, wordlessly encouraging Stiles to continue. His eyes were still glazed over like he was somewhere else, lost in some memory or fantasy, even as he spoke.

‘And then one day something happens, you see something or hear something and you’re reminded that no matter how many times you told yourself that that thing was real, it never was and never will be. And I know my thing was never going to happen, logically I _knew_ that, but knowing it and having it confirmed beyond repute are two very different things, and I know it’s stupid to be upset about losing something I never even had, but it still hurts. I tricked myself into thinking it would happen, someday, but now I know that that was all bullshit, and it hurts more than I ever thought it would to lose that dream.’

The tears had started up again as he’d spoken, the words coming out choked every now and then, and Derek didn’t even think about it before he was pulling Stiles into his side by the shoulders and letting him shake into his skin noiselessly. The thing was he knew what Stiles was talking about, maybe not the exact situation, but he’d felt the feeling back when he was 8 and his parents had started to fight, had told himself over and over again that they’d get through whatever it was that had happened and they’d go back to being happy like they’d been before. He’d repeated it in his head like a mantra for months ‘just a little longer, just a little longer,’ until he’d come to believe that it was just a little longer before everything got magically fixed. He’d believed it wholeheartedly until the day his parents had sat him down at the dining room table and explained to him and Laura what a divorce was and how they’d each be gaining custody of one of them. He remembered feeling numb, remembered gripping the table until his knuckles were white and his dad had had to pry his fingers off of the wood. He remembered locking himself in his bedroom and sobbing into his superman duvet until he’d fallen asleep. And most of all he remembered Laura slipping into his room in the night, tucking him under the covers before crawling in after him, curling around his body before telling him to go back to sleep because it was all going to be ok. It hadn’t really changed anything, hadn’t stopped their parents from getting divorced, hadn’t stopped Laura getting sent off with their mum, while Derek stayed with their dad, but it had made it that much more bearable, that one moment of wordless comfort.

He tightened his arm around Stiles’ shoulder.

They sat like that for what felt like eons, long after Stiles had stopped crying and his sniffling had trailed off into the occasional loud sniff, but they still sat together in silence, Stiles curled under Derek’s arm and pressed against his chest like they’d done it a thousand times before, even though it was completely new. Eventually though Derek’s arm began to cramp, and Stiles began to fidget and they both found themselves separating and pushing to their feet, Derek stretching his arm with a groan of sweet relief, and Stiles rubbing at his cheeks, trying to get rid of the dried salt. When Derek caught Stiles side eyeing him, he raised his eyebrow again.

‘What now?’

‘Oh nothing-’

‘Stiles not this again. Come on, out with it.’

Stiles pursed his lips and exhaled sharply.

‘Well it’s just that you, well dude you kind of, eugh, whatever. It’s just that you smell kind of bad, that’s it. Not like _really_ bad, just a bit sweaty, and… stuff.’

Derek glanced down at his chest before back up at Stiles.

‘Yeah well, I _was_ going to have a shower when I got home, but _someone_ was already in the bathroom when I got there.’

Stiles shifted awkwardly in place but he was smiling as he did so. Locking eyes with Derek, he smirked cheekily.

‘Well, you know me Derek. I live to make your life difficult.’

He stuck his tongue out, leaving it caught beneath his teeth as they both heard keys in the door downstairs followed by Scott’s voice calling up through the house questioningly. Staring somewhat transfixedly at Stiles’ tongue still poking out from his mouth, Derek hooked a thumb over his shoulder and gestured to the shower.

‘Anyway, if you're alright now, or at least a bit better, I’m going to hop in the shower quickly before the smell seeps into the tiles and we have to move to be rid of it.’

Grinning back at him, tongue disappearing back into his mouth, Stiles nodded, head tipping towards the door.

‘Yeah, that’s cool. I’m going to go and hang with Scott, maybe try and sneak up on him and scare him. Don’t be alarmed if you hear his girly scream while you’re soaping yourself up in the shower-’

He trailed off, his cheeks reddening again slightly though it was hardly noticeably beneath the pink tinge an hour of crying had given him. Swallowing lightly he forced his grin back into place, softening it slightly as he met Derek’s eyes once more.

‘Just, um, just before I leave you to do your thing, I just wanted to say thank you. I know you might not think you did much but you really helped. More and less than you can possibly know. So yeah, I really appreciate it. I know we aren’t exactly close, so you didn’t have to help. Just, thank you.’

Derek moved forward to grip his shoulder, a genuine smile colouring his face.

‘You're so welcome Stiles. Surely you know by now that you're practically family. If you ever need to talk about this, or anything else, barring Scott’s sex life because I already know way too much about that travesty, I’m always willing to listen. You know that right? If it’s important I’ll listen.’

Nodding, Stiles moved towards the door.

‘Yeah, I know. Same goes for you you know, though I’m not sure how much help I’ll be. But the offers there if you ever want me to return the favour. I’ll even let you cry into my shoulder, in a manly way of course.’

Derek flicked Stiles’ ear, smiling wickedly when he let out an affronted squawk.

‘Of course.’

They stared at each other for a moment, before Stiles nodded again, corner of his mouth twitching up.

‘I’ll see you later Derek.’

He winked, looking a little startled at his own actions, before he turned to slip out of the room, door shutting behind him, leaving Derek alone in the bathroom, feeling weirdly even happier than he had been when he’d gotten home. It really had been a good day, even with its ups and downs.

3 minutes later, while he was lathering himself in body wash, Derek smiled as Scott’s high pitch scream lanced through the house.

**Author's Note:**

> So as I said, this will be part of a series. I have some ideas, obviously they will get together, but if you have anything you want me to put in along the way feel free to ask, here or on Tumblr:
> 
> http://livingwithlycanthropy.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> If not, thanks for reading anyway. :)  
> It's currently not a priority writing wise, but I hope to post the next part as soon as possible.  
> Xx


End file.
